MECHANISMS FOR OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO CHANGES IN GENERAL SECONDARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

The article considers the peculiarities of the impact of resistance to change on the functioning of general secondary education. The urgency of the problem is due to the fact that effective change management is interrelated with the development of an innovative educational environment and is an important component of the competitiveness of the educational institution. Therefore, the task of the head of the educational institution is to increase awareness and understanding of the essence of changes in the sensory environment and minimize their negative impact on all participants in the educational process. The aim of the article is to analyze the phenomenon of “resistance to change” and its manifestation in the process of implementing changes, causes, forms, levels, in generalizing management styles of resistance to change, testing the intensity of resistance to change and justifying the effectiveness of mechanisms to overcome resistance to change. In the context of our study, the essence of the concept of “change management” is seen as a multifaceted process of influencing the managed system to achieve goals and a new vision through minimizing resistance to change, and “resistance to change” is interpreted as a natural phenomenon among teaching staff. At the stage of implementing changes to maintain the current situation in the functioning of the educational institution in order to track behavioral trends among teachers of general secondary education, a study was conducted. It is substantiated that resistance to change is manifested at the individual and collective levels. Based on the theoretical analysis of the Ukrainian and foreign management and our research, mechanisms for overcoming resistance to change in the teaching staff are proposed. They include establishing communication channels, promoting change, forming a history of change, finding external experts to assess change, stimulating teamwork, teacher training, psychological support, negotiations with informal leaders, coercion, reward and recognition. In the course of our study, it was found that the highest level of resistance is shown by teachers to those changes that violate the usual mode of operation. Therefore, to support teachers’ resilience to the perception of change, managers need to: set indicators of the quality of change; establish communication channels between all participants in change and develop tripartite partnerships between students, teachers and parents; to monitor the effectiveness of the general secondary education institution. We see the prospects for further research in the formation of criteria for minimizing resistance to change and assessing the range of effectiveness of change in the educational process.